Grief is in two parts.
The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life. --Anne Roiphe
The Surprising Benefit of Going
Through Hard Times
This excerpt is from the new book Wired to Create:
Unravelling the Mysteries of the
Creative Mind, by psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and HuffPost
Senior Writer Carolyn Gregoire.
One of Frida Kahlo’s most famous self-portraits depicts her in a
hospital bed connected by a web of red veins to floating objects that
include a snail, a flower, bones, and a fetus. Henry Ford Hospital, the 1932 surrealist painting, is a powerful artistic rendering
of Kahlo’s second miscarriage.
Kahlo wrote in her diaries that the
painting “carries with it the message of pain.” The painter was known for
channeling the experience of multiple miscarriages, childhood polio, and a
number of other misfortunes into her iconic self-portraits, and a real
understanding of her work requires some knowledge of the suffering that
motivated it.
The phenomenon of art born from adversity can be seen not only in
the lives of famous creators, but also in the lab. In the past 20 years,
psychologists have begun studying post-traumatic growth, which has now been
observed in more than 300 scientific studies.
The term post-traumatic growth was
coined in the 1990s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun to
describe instances of individuals who experienced profound transformation as
they coped with various types of trauma and challenging life circumstances. Up
to 70 percent of trauma survivors report some positive psychological growth,
research has found.
Growth after trauma can take a number
of different forms, including a greater appreciation for life, the
identification of new possibilities for one’s life, more satisfying
interpersonal relationships, a richer spiritual life and a connection to
something greater than oneself, and a sense of personal strength. A battle with
cancer, for instance, can result in a renewed gratitude for one’s family, while
a near-death experience could be a catalyst for connecting with a more
spiritual side of life. Psychologists have found that experiences of trauma
also commonly lead to increased empathy and altruism, and a motivation to act
for the benefit of others.
Life After Trauma
So how is it that out of suffering we
can come to not only return to our baseline state but to deeply improve our
lives? And why are some people crushed by trauma, while others thrive? Tedeschi
and Calhoun explain that post-traumatic growth, in whatever form it takes, can
be “an experience of improvement that is for some persons deeply profound.”
The two University of North Carolina
researchers created the most accepted model of post-traumatic growth to date,
which holds that people naturally develop and rely on a set of beliefs and
assumptions that they’ve formed about the world, and in order for growth to
occur after a trauma, the traumatic event must deeply challenge those beliefs.
By Tedeschi and Calhoun’s account, the way that trauma shatters our worldviews,
beliefs, and identities is like an earthquake—even our most foundational
structures of thought and belief crumble to pieces from the magnitude of the
impact. We are shaken, almost literally, from our ordinary perception, and left
to rebuild ourselves and our worlds. The more we are shaken, the more we must
let go of our former selves and assumptions, and begin again from the ground
up.
“A psychologically seismic event can
severely shake, threaten, or reduce to rubble many of the schematic structures
that have guided understanding, decision making, and meaningfulness,” they
write.
The physical rebuilding of a city that
takes place after an earthquake can be likened to the cognitive processing and
restructuring that an individual experiences in the wake of a trauma. Once the
most foundational structures of the self have been shaken, we are in a position
to pursue new—and perhaps creative—opportunities.
The “rebuilding” process looks
something like this: After a traumatic event, such as a serious illness or loss
of a loved one, individuals intensely process the event—they’re constantly
thinking about what happened, and usually with strong emotional reactions.
It’s important to note that sadness,
grief, anger, and anxiety, of course, are common responses to trauma, and
growth generally occurs alongside these challenging emotions—not in place of
them. The process of growth can be seen as a way to adapt to extremely adverse
circumstances and to gain an understanding of both the trauma and its negative
psychological impact.
Rebuilding can be an incredibly challenging
process. The work of growth requires detaching from and releasing deep-seated
goals, identities, and assumptions, while also building up new goals, schemas,
and meanings. It can be grueling, excruciating, and exhausting. But it can open
the door to a new life. The trauma survivor begins to see herself as a thriver
and revises her self-definition to accommodate her new strength and wisdom. She
may reconstruct herself in a way that feels more authentic and true to her
inner self and to her own unique path in life.
Creative Growth
Out of loss, there can be creative
gain. Of course, it's important to note that trauma is neither necessary nor
sufficient for creativity. Experiences of trauma in any form are tragic and
psychologically devastating, no matter what type of creative growth occurs in
their aftermath. These experiences can just as easily lead to long-term loss as
gain. Indeed, loss and gain, suffering and growth, often co‑occur.
Because adverse events force us to
reexamine our beliefs and priorities, they can help us break out of habitual
ways of thinking and thereby boost creativity, explains Marie Forgeard, a
psychologist at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, who has done extensive
research into post-traumatic growth and creativity.
“We’re forced to reconsider things we
took for granted, and we’re forced to think about new things,” says Forgeard.
“Adverse events can be so powerful that they force us to think about questions
we never would have thought of otherwise.”
Creativity can even become a sort of
coping mechanism after a difficult experience. Some people might find that the
experience of adversity forces them to question their basic assumptions about
the world and therefore to think more creatively. Others might find that they
have a new (or renewed) motivation to spend time engaged in creative
activities. And others who already had a strong interest in creative work may
turn to creativity as the main way of rebuilding their lives.
This post is republished here from the Huffington
Post. Excerpted
from WIRED TO CREATE: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind by
Perigee, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group. Carolyn Gregoire is a features
editor at the Huffington Post.
Be The Change: How can you use a
loss you experienced as an opportunity for growth?
Sourced From www.dailygood.org
